Read the extract from 'Julius Caesar' Act 3, Scene 1, given below and answer the questions that follow: Antony: Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart; Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand, Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe. O world, thou wast the forest to this hart; And this indeed, O world, the heart of thee. How like a deer, strucken by many princes, Dost thou here lie! Cassius: Mark Antony — Antony: Pardon me, Caius Cassius: The enemies of Caesar shall say this; Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.
Name any two of the 'hunters' who were present at the scene. Why are they described as being, 'sign'd' and crimson'd'?
Topic: Act 3 Scene 1 — the 'hunters'
Answer
Any two of the conspirators present at the assassination: Brutus and Cassius (Casca, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber, Cinna and Trebonius are equally acceptable).
They are described so because they had bathed their hands and swords in Caesar’s blood at Brutus’s bidding. "Sign’d in thy spoil" means marked with the blood of their kill, as hunters are marked with the blood of the deer they have taken; "crimson’d in thy lethe" means stained red in the stream of his life-blood. The words continue the hunting image and make their guilt literally visible.
Name the two conspirators precisely — vague answers like "the senators" lose the mark. Then explain both terms separately, since each carries credit, and finish by linking them back to the hunting metaphor of the previous line. Note the dramatic irony: the blood Brutus intended as a ritual of liberty becomes, in Antony’s words, the stain of butchery.